Tony Barton has also sculpted a new French line lancer officer (IFC09A), now available as an option in the lancer command pack (IFC09-10). For the Peninsula British he has added flank company skirmishing (AB-B11A).

AB Figures’ latest releases in 20mm are for the German Afrika Korps, adding infantry and more artillery crews to the existing sets. Please note that all Afrika Korps sets have been re-coded and start AB-ING7 – the Fighting 15s site has been updated to reflect this change.

Future releases will include an infantry command set and engineers. These are not yet available in the UK.

Fighting 15s is at Claymore in Edinburgh on Saturday 5 August, helping out Stuart Armstrong on Colonel Bill’s stand. Although Ian will be Stuart’s till monkey for the day, advance orders are possible.

As Colonel Bill’s carries our own medievals, Bartek’s playing cards, and Eureka’s Seven Years War ranges, Fighting 15s cannot take advance orders for those (which should be placed through Colonel Bill’s), but can take advance orders for other Eureka ranges, plus, of course, AB Figures’ 15mm Napoleonic and 20mm WWII ranges.

A selection of ready-made 15mm Napoleonic unit packs from AB Figures will be available on the stand. Colonel Bill’s will continue to carry these packs at other UK shows, starting with Britcon.

Time is running out for advance orders. Fighting 15s will shut from 2 to 9 August for holiday and to travel to and from Scotland, and therefore the last date for advance orders is Tuesday 1 August. Please note that orders that require extensive casting are now not likely to be ready in time – Ian has been casting for four days solid in preparation for the show as it is.

The Fighting 15s online shop will, as usual, be open while Ian is away, but orders will not be processed until his return. Please do not expect his wife or daughter to answer questions about toy soldiers while he is away.

Advance orders for Fighting 15s should be placed via email or, if you feel you absolutely must talk to a slightly deaf man, phone. Contact details are on the website. All advance orders must be paid for in advance by card or PayPal – Ian cannot take payments on the day.

From August, it will be all change on how Fighting 15s deals with wargames shows in the UK as we expand our relationship with Colonel Bill’s.

Since Salute in April this year, Ian of Fighting 15s has been helping out on the Colonel Bill’s stand, which means that 15mm AB Figures have been available to buy at selected shows. Our agreement with Eureka/AB, however, has meant that AB Figures can only be on the Colonel Bill’s stand while Ian is physically present, with the result that the figures have not been available at other shows.

This situation will change in August. As a result of discussions with Tony Barton and Nic Robson, Colonel Bill’s will be able to carry 15mm AB Figures in prepackaged units to shows even if Fighting 15s is not helping out, meaning that AB’s fine 15mm Napoleonics will be available to buy at the 40 or so shows a year that Colonel Bill’s attends. Britcon in Manchester will be the first show to work this way.

All the 15mm AB Figures sold this way will be licensed castings made by Ian at Fighting 15s, cast in lead-free pewter. Units will be sold in packs comprising 24 foot or 12 mounted figures. AB Figures, however, will not be available by mail order through Colonel Bill’s; Fighting 15s remains the EU mail order outlet.

Ian, however, will still be attending shows and working on the Colonel Bill’s stand, according to Fighting 15s’ shows schedule. Ian is able to take advance orders for those shows only. The remaining shows that we plan to attend with Colonel Bill’s in 2017 include Claymore, Colours, Derby Worlds, SELWG, Crisis and Warfare.

Fighting 15s’ ability to provide figures for Colonel Bill’s to take to shows relies on them being licensed castings made in the UK. Therefore items cast in Australia, including the whole of the 20mm WWII range of AB Figures, will not be available at shows except to advance order through Fighting 15s.

Colonel Bill’s remains Fighting 15s’ sole authorised outlet at shows for our own 15mm medievals, Eureka’s 18mm Seven Years War range, and Bartek’s pin-up playing cards, all of which can be ordered in advance for shows through Colonel Bill’s.

It’s May Day and AB Figures has released 22 packs of 20mm WWII Russians, which are available to buy now in the Fighting 15s shop. The range includes infantry in caps and helmets, plus support weapons, as well as crews for guns and vehicles.

Please note that the codes for this range have changed since their initial publication by Eureka and AB in the Eureka newsletter. Be careful in the Fighting 15s shop not to confuse AB codes (for example, AB-INSxx) with codes for the recently released 28mm Russians from Eureka (codes 100WWTxxx).

Fighting 15s will be at Salute 2017 on 22 April on Colonel Bill’s stand (TD21) along with a selection of 15mm AB Napoleonics. AB Figures available on the day will include infantry unit packs for the major nations.

This is an experiment for Fighting 15s. Salute used to be possible only with the help of Mike of Black Hat Miniatures, but now he has stopped attending events, shows – particularly Salute – have proved unmanageable. For the past year Colonel Bill’s has been taking a number of our products on the UK shows circuit – Eureka Miniatures’ 18mm Seven Years War figures, our own 15mm medievals for Tannenberg 1410, and playing cards by Bartek – and this year we have decided to help out by signing on with Colonel Bill’s crew for the day. Attending in person allows Fighting 15s to bring AB Figures to a show.

Fighting 15s intends to repeat this at Carronade in Falkirk on 13 May – we will again be present on the Colonel Bill’s stand – after which we will take a view on the experiment’s success and consider repeating it for the late summer and autumn show schedule and expanding the available range of packs. After a year of no events it is taking time to build up to having stock suitably packaged for shows. Bear with us.

Advance orders for collection at Salute or Carronade can be made via Fighting 15s by phone or email. Time is running out for advance orders for Salute – Wednesday 19 April is about as late as is possible. Fighting 15s can take advance orders for all the ranges it supplies – but please support Colonel Bill’s by buying the SYW basics from them.

As usual, Nic Robson of Eureka Miniatures is present at Salute on his own, heavily manned stand (TH20), with the new releases from both Eureka Miniatures and AB Figures. Don’t forget to say hello to him as well.

Notes

Because of licensing agreements, Fighting 15s may have AB Figures only at shows at which it is physically present. Colonel Bill’s is not able to have AB Figures at shows at which Ian of Fighting 15s is not present – we are dealing with this by aiming to attend a few more shows in person this year. All figures from Fighting 15s are packaged in blisters in the distinctive colours of Fighting 15s (gold badge on a blue background) and clearly labelled as to the manufacturer and contents. All figures supplied by Fighting 15s on the Colonel Bill’s stand are cast in lead-free pewter.

Contrary to all expectations on my part, Fighting 15s will be at Salute 2017 on 22 April. I will be helping out Colonel Bill’s on stand TD21, and you’re welcome to pop along for a chat and to take a look at the ranges that Colonel Bill’s takes to UK shows on my behalf.

Stuart has kindly allowed me to take advance orders for Fighting 15s’ other ranges: please place an order with Fighting 15s by email – unlike before, there is no option in the online shop: payment for all show orders with Fighting 15s must be in advance by card or PayPal as I cannot take card or cash payments on the day. This is to avoid any issue with cash or other payments going through the wrong till.

Fighting 15s now has in stock the 2nd Nassau-Usingen regiment codes from AB Figures and the figures are available to buy in the online shop.

These codes are expected to be popular. Unfortunately, if Fighting 15s goes out of stock, it may take eight or so weeks to obtain new stock from AB/Eureka in Australia.

Fighting 15s regrets that it does not yet have pictures of the grenadiers for this regiment.

AB has switched to identifying its figures as 18mm since the separation of its site from the Eureka Miniatures site, but Fighting 15s continues to label them as 15mm because “large 15mm” is normal for sculpts nowadays and because it would take a major restructuring of the shop to enact the change.